so very, very glad i shaved my legs...

saturday:
drive home to pick up ma in the morning, and headed to burlington to watch snake alley crit. got there in time to see jeff warming up. scored nice seats in the alley. next year...i'm bringing a bell to ring. seeing the crit made me excited for next year...it's on.

poor jeff crashed. twice now have i seen him bite it, and twice now i have been impressed by how well he takes it. (as i now know just how badly it hurts, but that's coming up later) and then moving around hurts. and it's pretty much continual. but he just takes it without a peep. and even hung out with us to watch the rest of the races. which...were pretty much ridiculous. to watch the 2, 1, pro race climb that hill, and then take those decents....one word: absurd. absurdly fast, absurd bike handling, all around absurdity. they're awesome.

sunday:
snake alley looked like so much fun, i opted to do the melon city crit in muscatine. plus an entry fee of only $10 had me thinking, it's worth it just for some experience. jeff had planned on it too, but being banged up detered him...as it would have anyone. so i headed down solo. happily, scott and megan were there, so i had some people to hang around with. another great crit. people aren't lying when they say this is a great weekend for bike racing. a nice long downhill, with a decent sized speed bump at the bottom makes for a fun way to set up for a nice longish climb at a decent grade to complete the lap. the cat 5 race did 8 laps. and i suffered through it. i finished at 16thish of 25ish. was pretty excited with my finish. i think i hung on to the lead group for the first 4 and a half laps, then lost them at the top of the climb...there are lots of fast guys in the 5 races. so just hung out and let the 2nd group catch me, as i didn't have it in me to catch back on to the leaders. and finished the race out with the second group. i even got to do a neat little sprint at the end. good times.

monday:
q.c. crit. i had so much fun at melon city i decided i better do the q.c. crit too. the cat 5 race was the last race at 4.45, so i showed up just before 2 to catch the 2, 1, pro race. the course was a figure eight, one block square eighted with a 2 block rectangle.
-length: 3/4 of a mile
-turns: 8, 6 right handed turns, 2 left

it's a great crit to watch, with all sorts of a nice atmosphere, since it's in the district. i was only mildly nervous going into it, and by the time i took the first corner, was more excited than concerned. i held on through the first break, and hung out with the lead group for the duration of my portion of the race. we averaged 24 mph. i managed to keep with it for 20 minutes of the 25 minute + 3 lap race. then i bit the pavement on 4th turn, a right hander, on the inside of the curve, with 2 bikes to my outside. i went most of the way around the curve, and thus as i fell i skidded to the inside, and only took out one other rider. was, and still am more sad about not finishing the race than my currently scraped up right side. i was feeling strong, and had just settled in to being warmed up. i think had i finished i would have finished well, for me anyway. oh well. still glad i did it. it was a riot.

i walked to the car to change, as i didn't rip my shorts, and didn't want them to have to cut 'em, as they are less than a week old. got all changed, and the bike put away, headed to the medic tent. saw the guy i took down, apologized all sorts. he was super nice about it though. afterall, it's just a part of crit racing. don't know what happened, if i got bumped, or if i just took the corner poorly (most likely scenario...). could have been any of these. all i know, is i went down. anyway, i got all bandaged up by the great gals at the medic tent. i think they were from the mississippi valley blood center. they were awesome. mom, margo, and sandy managed to find me finally. they had been slightly concerned when i stopped coming by during the race. and had been out looking for me. margo drove me home, and we had a nice memorial day cook out.



bike:
-de-trued rear wheel
-bent the rear derailuer hanger all kinds of bad. but looks fixable.
-ripped some bar tape on the right handlebar drop.
-somehow managed to bend the hoods inwards on both sides.
--so not too shabby, not very expensive to fix

clothes:
-ripped my jersey right shoulder. (i'm going to stitch it up)
-tore a small hole in my right glove.

verdict:
THANK GOODNESS I SHAVED MY LEGS.
now not only do i look super sleek...(translate, nerd), but the healing process will go much nicer.
can't wait for next year. hope to do all 3 crits. and hope not to fall again.

already itching to get back on the bike...

i'm getting great tan...

...at least on the bits of me that are exposed while cycling. awesome. it's like someone painted the top halves of my arms a nice shade of pink over their already tannish hue, and left everything else flashy white.

anyway, good day today. 50+ miles. 2 rides. a nice, tough, windy 40 mile road ride with jeff this morn, topped off with a fast loop around sugar with steve in the eve. all in all what i call a good day. and as a result...i'm a little tired. time to remedy that.

friday night fixie ride

went for the usual friday night fixie ride tonight. 7 people showed up, so it was a real nice crowd, and felt all sorts of fun to roll down clinton street as a big ole' pack of bikes. we decided it would be nice to ride out to north liberty and back. and we were right, it was. it was also a lot of hills to climb, and some construction to weave through on the path, and a few raucous rounds of foot down, and some celebratory ice cream back in iowa city, and all in all a good time. result: i NEED a fixed bike. tonight i found myself jealous of everyone on their fixies and their no brakes finesse. so...i need to fix my bike.

you asked for it...or wait, maybe you didn't.

so, about this sunday's mud-fest...
i.e.) wors #2 - alpine valley

i re-spoked half of the drive side of my wheel with the help of steve's truing stand sat night. now i have a every-other-spoke-black-then-silver-colored-spoke-motifee going on on the rear drive side. it's awesome. then steve and i decided it was a good idea to hop on the bikes to go play some cards and drink some brews with robin and friends. so, beer in our bags, butts on our bikes, we headed out into the big dark night. i returned home in time to sleep just after 1.30. and was up at 7...there was mistake number one...but i had cleverly packed sat night, so i just threw everything in the car and took off. got there at just a couple of minutes after 11 for the 11.30 start...hurried changing...hurried registration packet pick up...hurried number pinning....hurried rush to the start line...hurried filling of the camelbak as the nat anthem played...NARGH!..i forgot my gloves....oh well we'll see how these grips treat me gloveless...

anyway, i got there in time and managed to be all set for the start. it rained the night before...the ground was ugly, sticky, clumpy, clayey, blacky mud. and with a course which i would guess at about 85% climbing up the hill...with the only dry ground being the downhill and the bottom of the hill...both of which were part of the..."you've just climbed for the majority of the lap, now here's a very brief respite to get you back down so you can do the whole dern thing again" section...i had me a fun time. plus...since i arrived nice and early with lots of time to set my bike up properly...i ran tires inflated to 60psi....which really...really didn't help things.

i don't want to sound like i'm complaining. really, i had a blast. 13 out of 22 is a finish i am very happy with. plus as it was my first time dealing with mud of this sort. i got to experience the "hey, i'm pedaling, and the wheel is spinning, but i'm not gaining ground nearly as fast as i should be for as much as the dern thing is turning" feeling as i ground up some of the climbs...i cleaned one hill that most were walking and had all sorts of support from guys telling me just to keep spinning...it made me kinda happy....that being said i did lots of pushing too. so did everyone...except probably the quick ones in the front. several times i saw people in front of me just stop and tip over. and couldn't help but think...clip out dude...it's not really that bad. but i
guess it was. i'm calling it a victory. lots of errors, but no crashes off the bike. no chains dropped. (big, big thanks to yerke, for fixing the bike saturday...shifted like a dream... and to top things off, of course we had to have 3 bog crossings. not creeks. no moving water. but definitely not rideable 4+ inch deep sections of muddy puddles and rocks. so again the shoes are cached. and by the end the bike probably weighed nearly twice normal a la mud attached to everything. luckily the drivetrain stayed clean...passed people cursing and pulling clumps out of theirs...was jealous of the singlers who didn't have these worries. i was mindful of my own. bottom line is wors races are all sorts of fun. lots of people. nice cooperative guys. encouragement all over the place from each other, which i thought was pretty cool. and a huge turn out. i'd like to do some more. we'll see. it is aweful far to go...and an aweful steep entry fee for no shwag...an no chance for payout for me.

as far as the drive was concerned..drive up fine...although...i rolled into the race on less than E as i couldn't stop or i would have missed it...but made it. post race i got gas, and headed home...the long way...i'm not so swift and ended up 1 full hour out of my way in madison. and took the twitish route to get back from there. no one to blame but me...had i woke up earlier i could have stopped at a rest area for a free map instead of the one i bought in madison thus realizing my
error long before ending up actually in that cursed city...and i could have gotten gas...and i could have run decent tire pressure...and i could have sported gloves. although...the grips are great...comfortable the whole time, and no blisters. was shocked.

so...would i do it again...in a heartbeat. i'd just get up a bit earlier next time.

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